NJOE Interviews... Abel G. Peña

NJOE Interviews... Abel G. Peña

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Nov 28 08 1:53 PM

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The NJOE Interview series returns during our month long celebration of the site 8th anniversary (November 24 - December 24) and we're proud to offer up an
interview with Star Wars canon expert Abel G. Peña.Peña has written numerous articles for the Star Wars:
Insider magazine, Wizards of the Coast Star Wars Role Playing Games, Star Wars.com online articles, Darth Vader: The Ultimate Guide. His complete bibliography
can be found both here on his website and Wookieepedia. His official StarWars.com
blog has an extensive series of articles and commentary on the Expanded Universe and Star Wars in general. He is well known for including random and
obscure references to the EU in his works and as a member of the Star Wars Fanboy Association, got his start as a fan of Star Wars, just like everyone else.

Mr.Peña has graciously agreed to give the NJOE readership some of his time to answer fan questions. Questions will be submitted
via this thread only. Any questions are allowed to be submitted; nothing is off limits, but NJOE Administration will take all submissions and order them for
pacing and removal of duplicates while also pruning out any inappropriate or unnecessary questions. Just because a question is submitted as part of the
interview process does not mean that Mr.Peña is required to answer it and has been given permission to remove questions at his
discretion.

Question submission will be open until December 7th at 11:59pm, NJOE time (US Central). Only questions submitted in the forum thread will be accepted. Message
board registration is required but is free to all users. Any questions regarding the interview process should be asked through the Questions, Suggestions, and
Feedback forum on the message boards.

Please leave this thread only for the collection of questions. Create a thread in QSF for discussion on this interview.

*If you were given carte blanche to do one thing you always wanted to do to/in/with the EU, what would it be?

*Who are amongst your favourite authors in the EU and why?

*What is one thing that either happened or got retconned in the EU where you looked at it and just screamed a good old "NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
(NB: This can be either something you did or something someone else did)

*Kyle Katarn: On a scale of one to a thousand, how cool is he?

*Jacen Solo or Darth Caedus?

*If you were ever granted the chance to write a full-on novel (Star Wars) as opposed to articles and full-of-awesome-nuggets "little"
pieces, what would you do and who would it include?

*If I started a petition to get such awesomeness as Evil Never Dies, Emperor's Pawns and Droids, Technology and the Force
referenced/mentioned and indeed, perhaps even "novelised," would you sign such a petition?

*Is Lord Cronal actually Legacy of the Force's White Eyes? I ask this with all sincerity and with the knowledge that such an answer may constitute
a massive detonation of the implant LucasFilm had implanted.

*How hard is it to keep track of the always-extending continuity and timeline of Star Wars? Why do some who are invited into the EU fail at this? Why
do some flourish? When something like a novel, or magazine article, or a video game gets published, how strict are the continuity checks it has to go through?
Are they as stringent as say, a proofreading process for a novel/article?

*When the heck will Vader's Legacy see the light of day?

*Is it possible that Halagad Ventor had some offspring hidden somewhere that survived into the post-ROTJ timeframe and if so will they also look uncannily like
you?

*Will we ever have the privilege of getting to meet Vongerella (outside of your work) and if you are allowed to say, what do you envision her activities as
being post-Dark Forces Saga/Vader's Legacy?

*You're known for not only contributing swaths of new "Easter eggs" or "nuggets" of continuity to the universe, but also of fleshing
out numerous backgrounds and details of already-established people, places and things: Maarek Stele, Sarcev Quest, the Azur-Jamins, Darth Ruin, Iron Knights,
Cularin system, and two of my personal favourites Lumiya and Cronal. While your contributions may not be as "widely read" as others, you have
certainly gathered a large gathering of fans. To what do you attribute your success in this area and why do fans latch onto you as they do?

*The 20 Most Memorable Moments of the EU article that you co-authored came out about mid-2005. If you had to revise it now, would you change any in
light of the new material we have gotten in that approximate three and a half year period?

*I think of you as a kind of Daniel Wallace-type author, always working in the background and contributing countless intriguing and exciting additions to the
mythos that sometimes flesh out areas more than entire novels can do. What you ever consider working, as Daniel Wallace often does, on Essential
Guides and other types of sourcebooks? Why/why not?

*Although the idea seems to be settled once and for all, is Cronal related (biologically/familial or otherwise) to either Shadowspawn and/or Atha Prime?

*What happened to Lumiya's fleet in between Dark Star of the Empire and Legacy of the Force? Doesn't seem like something one
misappropriates...

*If you were working on a new project and you needed a specific source that you didn't already own, would LucasFilm get it for you for free and would you
be able to keep it? I always wondered about perks like that.

*Random question: Concerning the Jedi "Scout" from Yoda - Dark Rendezvous: did she end up being one of the Jedi that made it to the Belsavis
enclave?

*Random question 2: Will I ever be put out of my misery and have some explain what happened to Cronal after his involvement with Carnor Jax and (assumedly)
Irek Ismaren's cyber-surgery into Lord Nyax?

Multiple thanks to Iurus for pointing out my error, which is now fixed. Originally I had that as part of another question and the "he" would've
made sense in that context.

*Is there any official position of what happened to the SSD Guardian after it was last seen ferrying the GA's government around in
Destiny's Way? If not, would this be something you'd be interested in covering somewhere, somehow? While we're at it, what happened to
that nameless SSD that Han and Leia saw over Bastion, also in Destiny's Way?